5. Case History
4.
Certainly “Bosnia: Uncertain Paths to Peace” is a flawed and
fairly primitive attempt to build a new model of photojournalism. But
at least one commentator feels that it succeeded in important ways. In
Print magazine, the only publication to cover in depth what we had tried
to do, Darcy DiNucci wrote: “Clumsy as today’s low-bandwidth
presentations must be in some particulars, the site indeed pioneers a
new form of journalism. Visitors cannot simply sit and let the news wash
over them; instead, they are challenged to find the path that engages
them, look deeper into its context, and formulate and articulate a response.
The real story becomes a conversation, in which the author/photographer
is simply the most prominent participant.”2
Can such a project happen again with better results? Certainly it should
be possible. In the masses of new Web publications coming out there is
hope that some will recognize the need to tell stories differently about
issues of serious interest, just as many “brand-name” publications
like The New York Times will recognize that they must try new strategies.
And many photographers and their collaborators already know that conventional
photojournalism needs new ideas. A few have begun to act on their sense
of possibility: for example, the Web site “F8” published a strong
narrative project, “The Russian Chronicles,” concerning a trip
across Russia by writer Lisa Dickey and photojournalist Gary Matoso, one
of the few of his profession to try new approaches suitable for the Web;
there is also the lyrical photo essay “Farewell to Bosnia,”
featuring earlier photographs by Gilles Peress from Bosnia and based on
his book, produced by NYU students Alison Cornyn, Sue Johnson and Chris
Vail.
Undoubtedly these new attempts to tell stories on the Web, some accomplished
with very meager financial resources, will also affect previous media
so that partially non-linear, layered photo essays will appear in magazines
and newspapers. Ironically it may not be the linear photo essay that is
eventually revived after its long decline, but a new essay form that makes
the collage of television seem rather predictable.
The new medium of the Web brings with it many valuable legacies - one
is the possibility of exploring the world differently, with greater complexity
and from many points of view, in order to help photographers, reporters,
editors, readers and even subjects understand what is going on in deeper
and more meaningful ways. Whether these new models come from personal
homepages, students frustrated by conventional journalism, relief agencies,
new media companies or more conventional ones, we can only benefit. They
are sober alternatives to forthcoming virtual reality systems. They may
also be productive extensions of deconstructionist critiques that encourage
new and timely strategies of knowing. Once implemented, their impact on
the ways in which we think and act should be considerable.
